Roy takes notes at facility's opening

Jamie Francis/The Oregonian(from left) Brandon Roy, Larry Miller, Travis Outlaw and Chris Dudley were among the many to cut the ribbon of the Community Resource Center at Jefferson High School Monday.

Wide-eyed kids and curious community members flooded into Jefferson High School Monday afternoon, eager to explore the $65,000 digs that almost surely will become a fixture of their neighborhood.

With the smell of fresh paint still lingering, folks roamed a new community resource center, designed and renovated by the Trail Blazers thanks to a five-figure grant from Toyota and the NBA. There were brand new laptop computers and a flat screen television, tables for studying and chairs for relaxing. Kids played board games and peeked around at Blazers bobbleheads, autographed basketballs and photos of present and past Blazers teams.

All the while, Brandon Roy, representing the franchise with teammate Travis Outlaw, soaked up the scene with keen interest, logging mental notes for a vision of his future charitable endeavors.

The center is designed to benefit Jefferson's community, in particular the children who one day will feed into an inner-city high school that has had its share of challenges over the years. For Roy, who posed for pictures, signed autographs and chatted with kids, the room could serve as a blueprint for something he aspires to create.

The Blazers All-Star guard, through his recently formed Brandon Roy Foundation, is in the budding stages of creating a support system for children with learning disabilities. His foundation, led by his father Tony, has identified a handful of Seattle middle school children with learning disabilities and is providing tutoring and mentoring support that will enable them to become success stories. It's a test group and Roy hopes the size and status of his foundation will increase dramatically over the years -- to the point where Roy will need to build a learning center (or centers) to foster learning and development.

"I just think it's a shame that we just put 30 kids in a classroom and you assume they all are equal, that you give them a book and tell them to read and they can do it," Roy said. "Hopefully I can be a spokesperson for this. It's happening everywhere in the country."

His passion is rooted in his own experiences. Roy says without the right help -- and luck -- he might not be where he is today. He skated through the first three years of high school with Cs and then failed to score a qualifying mark the first time he took the SAT, endangering his chances of earning a college basketball scholarship. That's when Roy discovered he had a learning disability affecting his ability to read.

With the help of his parents and AAU basketball coaches, his disability was identified and he received help from tutors. The summer before his senior year of high school, Roy studied more than he worked on his basketball game. The result: He says he logged a 3.8 grade point average as a senior and, thanks to the extra time given to people with learning disabilities, Roy improved his SAT score enough to earn a scholarship to the University of Washington.

His older brother, Edward, who some say had equal basketball talent, was not so lucky, had to attend junior college and never realized his basketball dreams.

Roy hopes to make it easier for children such as Edward and himself by identifying disabilities and helping children at an early age, when they are particularly vulnerable.

"It's extremely tough," Roy said. "As a kid, I was at times embarrassed. I wouldn't tell people and there were things I was afraid to do. And as I got older, I realized things weren't coming as easy to me as they did for the kid sitting next to me in class. Those are the hardest times in your life, as far as the peer pressure and insecurities, and it was hard on me.

Had the resources
"But I had a really good support group. I was fortunate enough to have people who cared and resources to help. And a lot of times that's what it comes down to; kids just don't have those resources."

Through his foundation, Roy hopes to provide those resources. One day in the future, perhaps, he will create something like the shining new community center at Jefferson, one of 15 service projects fostered by the NBA this season through its partnership with Toyota.

"It's sad to see so many kids, talented kids and players who don't get an opportunity," Roy said. "Basketball comes naturally to me. You can tell me 10 plays and I'll remember all of them. But in the classroom, it's just different. I just think we should try to play to the kids' strengths instead of pointing out their weaknesses. And that's kind of what I hope we can do one day."
-- Joe Freeman: 503-294-5183; joefreeman@news.oregonian.com